Monthly Archives: May 2009
Not Soya Sauce
Finding wheat free soya sauce has been a challenge but is getting easier and more economical with Superstore’s President’s Choice line having gone wheat free ( read labels carefully!). The challenge, though, is “ What do you do when you are allergic to SOY too?” Soy free Soya Sauce? ummmm
Some online searches came up with some options including Marmite and Vegamite blends but I am not a fan of those, regardless of the number of Marmite Sandwiches a friend used to make.
What did we come up with? A reasonable facsimile.
1 cup Molasses
1/3 cup Balsamic Vinegar
1.5 cups Beef Broth
3 – 4 Tbsp Salt
The trick here is the SALT. Keep in mind, it’s NOT soya Sauce. NOTHING is going to taste exactly like soya sauce accept soya sauce. This, however, seemed a very reasonable replacement for stir frys and other uses.
Deep Fried Heaven!
My brother is down visiting and this brings with it Added Allergies to the list. Soy and Dairy. My drive is to get my little brother (6′ 4″) from his current weight of 135 pounds on the path of good food that won’t kill him and a target weight of 170 minimum!
A noble mission… and one that will have me hitting the treadmill and carrot sticks when he leaves! Until then? I am one happy girl! Why? Due to meals like this!
Hubby has mastered the art of Deep Fried Chicken fingers. Crispy seasoned outer breading with moist tender strips of chicken inside. Wheat Free, Gluten Free, Soy Free, Dairy Free but certainly NOT free of great flavor! He is promising me the recipe to post here to share.
Now, most people would toss some plum sauce, carrot sticks and maybe some fries on the side but what did I get to have? 
Deep Fried Mushrooms! Now both of these were Wheat Free, gluten free, dairy free and soy free (sunflower free too but that is simply the matter of choosing the right oil for deep frying). These bad boys brought back memories of the Burger Baron in my home town. Early eight’s – deep fried, pre-transfat craze, everything bad for you but a hint of a veggy in there – mouth scalding bites of heaven. Some plum sauce to help cool them down and they disappeared into my mouth one right after the other, long past the point of need and deep into the heart of dietary greed! Every sinful moment a delight!
This is the man that knows the way to my heart. He is NOT allergic to wheat but has committed himself to this cause 100%. He lives in a wheat free home and never complains. He challenges out food like a true scientist.
Now to nag… I mean.. “encourage” him to get those recipes posted for us!
Millet – Clear as Mud
“Millet is gluten-free. It is not Grain Free!”
Just to not confuse new people to the disease and diet.”
Millet, common name for several species of the grass family (see Grasses), and for their small-seeded grain.
Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and … usually contains less protein than wheat or rye and more protein than rice.
Fundamental Flour Facts has a lot of info on this topic.
Still, much confusion seems to swirl around the word flour… The Concise Oxford Dictionary offers “any fine powder” as one of the definitions of the word “flour”.
Wheat is a cultivated grass, just like corn and rice. … it became imperative to divide flours into categories: gluten containing grass flours, gluten free grass flours and flours from other plants. I have been able to further sub divide the flours from other plants into ground nut flours, seed flours, legume flours and root or vegetable flours.
This is some of the information I have amassed through extensive reading and careful research. If it contains any inaccuracies, omissions, or errors please bring it to my attention, so I can correct the information. I am not a specialist of any kind, just one woman searching for a way to better understand the foods I eat, so that I can recover my health.
The Grass Family of Plants:…
Gluten Free Grasses or grains:
- Corn / Maize Flour or Meal
- Millet Flour
- Rice Flour – all varieties, white & brown
- Glutinous Rice Flour ( also know as sticky rice or Mochi )
- Wild Rice Flour ( the seeds can be cooked whole or ground into a dark flour )
- Sorghum Flour
- Teff Flour – dark and ivory
- Sugar Cane
- Bamboo
- Job’s Tears / Hato Mugi / Coixseed / Adlay / Adlai ( barley like in appearance, grain that is gluten free and can be ground into flour)
Please check out her site for MUCH MUCH more information!
Summary? Use with care! Determine if it is GRAINS you are allergic to, modified grains ( the genetically altered ones we use so commonly today) OR if it’s the glutens themselves (aka Celiac). If it makes you ill… DO NOT EAT IT.
Knorr Soup Lunch
I miss soups! While I really enjoy traditional Campbells soups and their economic addition to cooking for a family, I now venture to find affordable alternatives.
Knorr has caught on. Not only can you get some of their soups in ready to serve sizes for a hungry man or two ladies for lunch, you can also get pouches for approx $2.50 each. Two of these and some Red Mills Pizza Dough makes a great lunch for my family of 5.
That brings a family meal in at approx $10. Reasonable!
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Items that you might not recognize on the ingredients list. To Wikipedia!
maltodextrin - can be derived from any starch. In the US, this starch is usually rice, corn or potato; elsewhere, such as in Europe, it is commonly wheat. This is important for coeliacs, since the wheat-derived maltodextrin can contain traces of gluten. There have been recent reports of coeliac reaction to maltodextrin in the United States.[citation needed] This might be a consequence of the shift of corn to ethanol production and its replacement with wheat in the formulation.
Other authorities on gluten maintain the source does not matter because maltodextrin is such a highly processed ingredient that the protein is removed, rendering it gluten free. If wheat is used to make maltodextrin, it will appear on the label. Even so, the maltodextrin will be gluten free.
note: Soups may contain milk ingredients
The Grocery Store – Outer Ring Elitism
You are standing in the grocery store wondering “Now what?”. Your eyes are moving through the bakery ( strategically placed just inside the door to entice you with succulent smells of sweet baked goods.) and see mounds of buttered goodness you now can’t eat. What used to take you an hour to whip through ( for small families) now finds you an hour in holding the 5th can of tomato soup in your hand wondering why they would put Wheat Flour in tomato soup? or Beef Broth? or one of a million other staple foods that you used to trust.
Shopping is now an adventure ( or hell, depending on the day). This will get easier and less discouraging. I have a wheat free home that houses 3 boys soon entering teenage hood! There is hope!
Early in highschool we were taught that the HEALTHIEST way to eat was by only shopping around the OUTTER circle of any grocery store. Why? Less prepackaging, less additives and MORE primary food group items. THAT is where we will fill the majority of our shopping cart.
The Outer Elites – Produce, Meats, Dairy and Baked goods.
The Bakery – These are an entire weeks worth of posts and so we will set those to the side today and consider them, for the most part, out. So lets move on to the Produce.
The Produce – How often to you see a label on an orange saying ” may contain traces of peanuts”? Good! So, we get to eat a little healthier on this journey too. When I began shopping “enlightened” I was so overwhelmed I just set aside the Organic for the time being. I want to feel I have CHOICES first. I do not function well on feelings of deprivation.
Tips: Avoid packaged to start! Salads with croutons in little cello packs, sliced fruit in syrups, and anything that has that Label of Ingredients – read!
Meat Department – Here it’s not as clear cut. Watch out for;
- sausages, smokies, and hotdogs - toasted wheat crumbs, flour and other forms are often used as fillers, seasonings, and coatings to keep things looking fresh and enticing. Johnsonville and Butcher’s Choice both have lines of sausages, Top Dog and President’s Choice has a line of hotdogs
- Deli Sliced meats - Ask to see the unopened package, box or tube. If they can’t produce the packaging, smile in appreciation and decline. All Beef” just refers to the MEAT content and not the additives. Sobey’s has a leaflet on their counter listing ALL the wheat/gluten free options! If you don’t see it there, ask and they are very helpful!
Dairy Department - Milks and cheeses contain just what they say. Milk and cheese ingredients but do not assume that MARGARINE does not! Whey and Casinate are two ways of saying ” Dairy”.
Dairy Free Alternatives to get you started :
- Butter - SuperStore’s Celeb Margarine, Fleishman’s Lactose Free Margarine ( double check, there are two that say LF but one has whey!),
- Cream/ whipped cream - Nutriwhip cartoned ‘cream’ ( there is ONE! It is a great replacement for many recipes or desserts that call for cream, including Alfredo !)
- Milk - Almond Milk. It comes in chocolate, vanilla or original. The Vanilla gets used in a lot of cooking and baking here as it is a very mild vanilla taste.
For the most part the Dairy, Meat and Produce aisle are not going to be the biggest challenge so start there! Give yourself that pick me up of a GOOD cut of steak, a rosy piece of salmon or some treat of the GOOD cuts of chicken. Plan for some lunch nibblies by picking up some extra thick slice ham or thin sliced pure roast beef to wrap around cheeses and spreads to make ‘sandwich wraps.
You can do this. You just need some basic items to build from.
Twitter, Facebook and Websites … Oh My.
Well, it’s a whole new language out there now that I have gotten started with reaching out to this world of networking. One could make a full time job of it. So, here goes.
twitter – I can be added as WheatFreeMe
Facebook – there is a Calgary Coffee group to keep up to date on where we are going to meet up.
Questions to consider in the near future? We all are of the obvious villains in this wheat free world – Flour, Barley, Rye… etc etc – but what about questions like;
- Baking Sodas?
- Baking powders?
- Sugars?
What other ingredients are we baking with daily without a second thought. Worse yet? What are we getting suckered into paying MORE for just because the market is suddenly aware that it’s a Catch Phrase?! ( Saw ‘Now Wheat Free’ on a jar of jam in the Grocery Store! Wha?! )
So. Will look into that tomorrow morning with coffee.
What others have to say!